The sun's shining a little more brightly here in California since the state Public Utilities Commission approved a new California Solar Initiative earlier this month.

The goal of the initiative is to stimulate the installation of 3,000 megawatts of solar power generation capacity on about a million California rooftops (there are currently about 130 megawatts installed).

It does this by setting up a decade-long program of homeowner rebates for installing and using solar electric panels. Incentives totaling $3.2 billion will be available, at a cost of about 50 cents per month to each residential electricity customer in California. The program officially starts in January 2007, when an existing short-term measure runs out. (This stop-gap measure's terms are similar to those of the California Solar Initiative, so it's not too early to apply for rebates.)

Because it is structured to wean the solar sector off subsidies, rebates are highest in the early years of the plan -- in other words, now. So like 73 percent of Californians who think solar power is a good idea yet haven't been moved to install panels, I think it's a good time to look into the latest developments to see if solar makes sense for me.

A program that reduces pollution and greenhouse gases, contributes to a sustainable state economy and literally brings power to the people seems tailor-made for Bay Area homeowners. Mike Hall, chief marketing officer at Borrego Solar agrees. "Our customers are a pretty good demographic match for the Bay Area -- they're homeowners and professionals. They're upper middle class and they're probably living in a 1,500 to 2,000 square-foot home and looking at $100 to $150 electric bills."

Certainly I like the idea of not being subject to electricity rate increases -- and of spending my money on a system that I own rather than putting it in PG&E's pocket. But in the past, it hasn't quite made financial sense for me. I don't use much electricity, since my water heater, stove and heater are all gas (although as gas prices continue to rise, it's worth considering powering each of these with solar).

In some ways, I'm like Anastasia Nicole, a sustainability consultant who installed solar panels on her Oakland home five years ago. We've both taken measures to reduce our energy consumption, so our needs are not nearly as large as Borrego's typical customer.

But here's how she and I differ: Nicole relishes a challenge. Fed up with energy uncertainty after deregulation, she bought and installed her own solar components, tangling with city permits and learning technical skills more common to electricians, carpenters and roofers than ordinary homeowners.

Because installing solar panels is a highly customizable process, she also had to educate herself about all the different solar technologies and components, and figure out which of the many configurations was right for her needs.

But all this sweat paid off for her. "My total cost was only about $4,000 for all of my energy for a good 20-25 years," she says. Sounds good, but I don't see myself up on the roof weighted down with tools and scratching my head over a wiring diagram.

Fortunately, there's a simpler way. Hiring a professional installer like Borrego or any of the growing number of others working in the Bay Area (the Northern California Solar Energy Association is a good place to start looking) means I never have to so much as pick up a screwdriver if I don't want to. A professional who is up to date on the latest technology will be figuring out what kind of system I need.

"It's now to the point where it basically lives on your roof and there's this box and it just does its thing," says Hall. "We do have a lot of people in the Bay Area who are technical and they want to get into the numbers and have more of a relationship with their system, but our average customer never looks at it. It really is just like a home appliance now." Professionally installed solar systems even come with a state-mandated minimum five-year warranty.

What Borrego installs and what most people will want are "intertie" systems -- solar systems connected to PG&E's infrastructure. This means that you'll be "on the grid" and your power would go down in a blackout just like everyone else's. Completely off-the-grid systems require power storage in a bank of batteries that not only take up a lot of space but are filled with toxic chemicals -- the price you pay for total energy independence.

While you lose survivalist cachet with an intertie system, there are no batteries to deal with and no arcane maintenance details to worry about: You flip the switch and have light, just like always. If you need more power than your panels are providing at any given moment, it just comes in off the grid and you never even notice.

Except you won't have to pay for it: PG&E credits customers with solar systems for the power that they feed into the grid up to the amount they use each year (currently, they won't pay you for a surplus). And the credits are highest for power provided during peak load times like summer afternoons, which happen to be just when solar systems are providing the most power.

"Our customers just settle up with PG&E at the end of the year," says Hall. "About two-thirds of them are paying nothing for electricity. Usually that's their goal, and we try to find a way for them to do it."

Hall says that with advances in solar systems and growing expertise in the region, the actual process of installing and running a system should no longer be a barrier. "It's pretty simple. If you give us a year's worth of PG&E bills and a half-hour of measurement on the roof, we can design and build the entire thing in three days."

So the only question left is the price, which is exactly what the California Solar Initiative addresses. According to Hall, a middle-range situation would be a 1,500 to 2,000 square-foot house with $100 to $150 electric bills per month. Total cost for solar panels would probably be in the ballpark of $25,000 to $30,000 before rebates. But the subsidies are substantial. They would be about $10,000 from the state, plus a new federal tax credit of $2,000.

Hall says that Bay Area homeowners usually have no problem getting home-equity loans for solar systems. "Depending on what type of loan you can get, you can make it so that your loan payment is about the same as what you would have paid PG&E. So when rates go up again you're doing even better."

"Everybody who got solar put in last year is saving 11 percent more this year because of rate increases," Hall continues. "And rates are going to keep going up. The energy situation is really bad, so it's only a question of how fast."

"For somebody who has $200 to $300 electric bills," he goes on, "it's going to be a six- or seven-year payback. And during that time, it's not like they're just throwing money to PG&E. They're actually making payments on something they own."

So let's look at my case. My house is in the Mission District, which gets plenty of sun. (In spite of the San Francisco's foggy reputation, solar power is viable here, as the city-owned panels on the Moscone Center and the Southwest Water Treatment Plant have shown.) I've got plenty of room on the roof to make installation a snap (Hall says my system would occupy about 250 square feet of my flat roof). My monthly electric bills have been about $70, before any recent rate increases.

Hall estimates that a system that would bring my annual PG&E bill to zero without any changes in the way I live would cost about $24,000 installed. (I've already reduced my consumption of electricity, but there's more I can do, like installing LED lights and looking at my phantom loads, to reduce the size of the system I'll need.) After rebates, says Hall, my cost would be about $15,000.

I bought my house five years ago so, like most other homeowners in the region, I've been blessed with ridiculous amounts of home equity. According to my mortgage company, that $15,000 would cost me about $145 each month. That's double what I'm paying PG&E now, but rates could easily increase by that much in the coming decade. What's more, this loan would have a term of 15 years. After that I'm looking at free electricity (solar panels carry a 25-year warranty and, with no moving parts, are extremely reliable).

Solar has been the right thing to do for a long time, but the California Solar Initiative is making it into the smart thing too. Now my only problem is that everyone else is realizing this. "The buzz is at an all-time high," says Hall. His company has a two-month backlog of home installations, and he hasn't even found the time to put a system on his new home yet. But he says he will.

And so will I. Some figures in this story have been corrected since its original posting. --Ed.